Information

WELCOME TO CONSUMER ETHICS

Anyone who pays attention at all should not be surprised to learn that how we spend our money can profoundly influence social and economic justice, environmental preservation or degradation, animal welfare, and democratic freedoms—especially in third-world countries.

Of course, it is difficult to always be 100% ethical in everything we do. No one lives a blameless life, and in our capitalist culture it is very difficult to monitor and be aware of every injustice that occurs for the sake of profit. Clearly, most economic or consumer injustices take place out of sight – and therefore out of mind for most of us.

Add to that the sheer burden of just getting through the day: working, commuting, doing chores, meeting our obligations and responsibilities, etc., that it seems damn near impossible to be mindful of how, what, and even whom we consume day after day. But doesn’t mean that we can’t try to make better consumer choices as much as possible.

The Consumer Ethics group will allow us to share information that will help us understand and address the above issues and become conscientious consumers by:

Identifying unscrupulous corporations that exploit people or animals; or maintain and increase social poverty, inequality, and deprivation

Allowing us to share information on fair trade products or services

Exposing workplace injustices, sweatshops, and child labor violations

Identifying companies that value their employees and customers, that promote living wages and equality and fairness in the workplace, provide safe and healthy working environments, and maintain sustainable business and environmental practices

Finding products that are safe to use or healthy to consume

Recognizing consumer addiction and consumer propaganda

Understanding and voting against economic legislation that is unfair or predatory

We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, militarism and economic exploitation are incapable of being conquered. A nation can flounder as readily in the face of moral and spiritual bankruptcy as it can through financial bankruptcy. -- Dr. Martin Luther King, April, 1967

With today being Black Friday and one of the worst shopping days of the year I thought this would be a good day to remind people to either NOT shop or make sure you vote with your dollars. I for one will not be buying anything until after the New Year. I doubt that will make much difference as I do not buy much anyway and when I do I am very particular about it but I try. :D

Thought I'd hang out here for a while. This topic is important to me and I don't have many places to discuss it. For example, I've been doing house renovation for almost a decade. Whenever possible, I recycle materials, repurpose, reuse, and try to use things that last. It's not all virtuous choices, but it's on my mind a lot. I quit going to Target, even though I know they won't care if I go there, due to Target's involvement in labor and sexual politics that I disagree with. Well, anyway I'm interested in what is said here.